Books from Slovakia
12 popular slovak books
Travel the world without leaving your chair.
The target of the Read Around The World Challenge is to read at least one book written by an author from each and every country in the world.
All books that are listed here as part of the "Read Around Europe Challenge" were written by authors from Slovakia.
Find a great book for the next part of your reading journey around the world from this book list. The following popular books have been recommended so far.
1.
Description:
Sometimes running away is the bravest option. Or, so believes Rosa, who ditches her husband and home and takes off on the road. Along the way, she encounters the owner of a puppet theater who’s on a mission to conquer the world with his performance of The Snow Queen. Which character from this old fairy tale will Rosa identify with? With Gerda, searching fruitlessly for her lost love? With Kai, who flees home and his beloved one day without a word? Or with the Snow Queen, who seems to stand aloof above it all? With magnetic, sparkling prose, Beňová delivers a lively mosaic that ruminates on hum... continue
3.
Manual de despedidas by Jana Beňová ES
Description:
Cuatro jóvenes amigos -dos parejas-, van a la deriva por la vida, con imprecisas aspiraciones artísticas e intelectuales que comparten en el Café Viena (que denominan "Café Hiena"). Elza, quien tiene el mayor protagonismo, se ha ido a vivir con Ian a Petrzalka, una barrio suburbano fuera de Bratislava; un mundo totalmente nuevo.
La novela está narrada en su mayor parte, a través de párrafos cortos, a veces fragmentarios sin seguir necesariamente un hilo conductor, lo cual refuerza esta sensación de vidas fuera del tiempo.
Enti... continue
4.
Rivers of Babylon by Peter Pišt̕anek EN
Description:
It is 1989. Across Central Europe, socalism is crumbling, and robber capitalism is being born. Rivers of Babylon tells this story of a Central Europe, where criminals, intellectuals and secret policemen have infiltrated a new democracy, through the eyes of Racz, sociopathic gangster and idiot of genius. Slovak readers acknowledge Peter Pist'anek as their most flamboyant and fearless writer, stripping the nation of its myths and false self-esteem.
5.
Samko Tále's Cemetery Book by Daniela Kapitáňová EN
Description:
Short satirical novel translated from Slovak about an autistic waste-paper collector who conforms to every authority or prejudice, regardless of the effect on those around him
6.
Seeing People Off by Jana Beňová EN
Description:
*Winner of the European Union Prize for Literature. There is a liveliness and effervescence to Jana Benová’s prose that is magnetic. Whether addressing the loneliness of relationships or the effectiveness of rat poison, her voice and observations call to mind the verve and sophistication of Renata Adler or Jenny Offill, while remaining utterly singular. Seeing People Off follows Elza and Ian, a young couple living in a humongous apartment complex outside Bratislava where the walls play music and talk, and time is immaterial. Drawing on her memories, everyday interactions, observations of post-... continue
7.
The Equestrienne by URSULA. KOVALYK EN
Description:
The Equestrienne is a poetic, caustic coming-of-age novel about the desire of one young girl to realise her dreams before and after Velvet Revolution; it is a celebration of friendship between women and also a bitter acknowledgement that greed and the desire for power candestroy any relationship.
8.
The House of the Deaf Man by Peter Krištúfek EN
Description:
Peter Kritfek's sweeping family saga, covering Slovakia's history from 1938 to the early 2000s, explores the way the pressure of history makes a decent but weak man harm the people around him, skilfully weaving into the narrative extracts from authentic period documents ranging from advertisements to poetry and diaries.
9.
Description:
Jaded Ondro never would have guessed he could fall in love during a brief layover-until now. In Basel, Switzerland, he meets Jamie, an American living in Scotland who is as brilliant as he is beautiful. Put in a position to offer Jamie comfort without hope of recompense, Ondro catches a glimpse of the home he longs for.
10.
The Nazis Knew My Name : A Remarkable Story of Survival and Courage in Auschwitz by Magda Hellinger, Maya Lee EN
Description:
The extraordinarily moving memoir by Australian Slovakian Holocaust survivor Magda Hellinger, who saved an untold number of lives at Auschwitz through everyday acts of courage, kindness and ingenuity. In March 1942, twenty-five-year-old kindergarten teacher Magda Hellinger and nearly a thousand other young Slovakian women were deported to Poland on the second transportation of Jewish people sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp. The women were told they'd be working at a shoe factory. At Auschwitz the SS soon discovered that by putting Jewish prisoners in charge of the day-to-day running of... continue